Introduction For this Tutorial VirtualBox has to be installed (correctly) on your computer.This tutorial was tested on the hosts Windows 7 SP1 and Linux (Ubuntu 11.04). But should probably work on other hosts as well. For this tutorial I used my 3.5-inch floppy disks of MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11. My present pc no longer has a floppy disk drive, so I used an old pc to create floppy images (.IMA) from my old floppy's.

To create the images I used the program UltraISO from: http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/Now that we have created the floppy images we can start to configure VirtualBox.Create a virtual machineCreate in VirtualBox a new virtual machine with the name Windows 3.11 or any name you like. By OS Type select the Operating System: Microsoft Window. Under version select: Windows 3.1.

Hit Next. By memory use the default Base memory size of 32 megabyte.Hit Next.Create a new hard disk.Hit Next.Use the default file type: VDI (Others may also work). Hit Next.By storage details use the option you like (I used Dynamically allocated)Hit Next.If you like, you can give the virtual disk another name or location.Use the default disk size of 1,00 Gigabyte (MS-DOS 6.22 can only recognise hard disks up to 2.1 GB)Hit Next, then two times Create to create the virtual machine.Before you start the virtual machine you have to add a floppy controller.Right click on the new virtual machine, then Settings, under Storage click: Add floppy controller.

Add the newly added controller click on the green plus(+). A new window will popup, select: leave empty.

Now that this is finished you can start the virtual machine.

Installing MS-DOS 6.22.MS-DOS is needed to run Windows 3.11. You can see Windows 3.11 as a graphical shell that depends on MS-DOS architecture. Now that your virtual machine is running you will get the following message:

If the formatting hangs on 0%, then you have to reboot the virtual machine (right ctrl + R) and hit F8 until you see the following screen:

Refuse loading of AUTOEXEC.BATWhen the A:\> prompt will appears, give the command "format c:" and enter the command "setup" once formatting is done.

when the MS-DOS setup is running again you can follow the instructions on screen for installing MS-DOS.When the MS-DOS setup asks for Setup Disk #2, you have to load the next MS-DOS Floppy image.Click on devices in the menu bar again, then --> Floppy Devices --> Choose a virtual floppy disk file... then select your next MS-DOS 6.22 floppy image file.Use the same method for disk #3.

When the setup is done, remove the floppy disk from the virtual drive, and press ENTER.

Setup complete:

After the reboot the MS-DOS 6.22 prompt will be loaded.

Installing Windows 3.11.Now that MS-DOS is installed we can start to run the Windows 3.11 setup.Click on devices in the menu bar again then --> Floppy Devices --> Choose a virtual floppy disk file... then select your first Windows 3.11 floppy image file.At the C:\> prompt, give the command "A:\" and enter the command 'setup' once the prompt A:\> will appear and hit enter.The Windows for Workgroups 3.11 setup screen will appear.

Hit enter to setup Windows for Workgroups 3.11.On the next screen choose the Express Setup with the enter key (the express setup is usually fine).Windows will now be installed. When the setup asks for disk 2, click on devices in the menu bar again then --> Floppy Devices --> Choose a virtual floppy disk file... then select your next Windows 3.11 floppy image file.After that the setup will reboot to a more graphical style and ask for your name, company and product number (use your windows 3.11 product number )

Click Continue.Verify your information and Click Continue.The setup will now continue. When it ask for the next disk, select your next Windows 3.11 floppy image and hit Enter.

Repeat this action for the following floppy disks.When it asks for printer installation, just leave the "No Printer Attached" option selected and press the Install button.When it asks for Network Setup, just press continue (You have to configure this later).When it asks for the application name for C:\DOS\EDIT.COM, leave the default "MS-DOS Editor" option enabled and press OK.You can choose to either Run Tutorial or Skip Tutorial.Setup complete!Remove your last floppy Image and press Restart Computer.

After the reboot, you can type win into the MS-DOS command line to see your new, working Windows 3.11! It is fully usable at this point, but continue with the rest of this tutorial to enable network support, CD-ROM drivers, video drivers, sound drivers and Internet Explorer.

Installing and configuring drivers

CD-ROM installation:It works quicker to load all drivers and setup files on a single CD-ROM disk image then on multiple floppy's images, so the first thing we need to do is to configure the ms-dos/Win 3.11 installation to recognise the VirtualBox (virtual) CD-ROM drive.Search the web for the file AOATAPI.SYS and Copy the AOATAPI.SYS file to a floppy disk image, or use the CD-ROM driver floppy Image that I already made for you.Start your virtual machine. Load the floppy Image, and then type COPY A:\AOATAPI.SYS C: at the command prompt to copy the AOATAPI.SYS file to your C: drive. After that you must edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.At the C:\ command prompt type EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT. Place the line: c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:idecd000 in the autoexec.bat and save, then exit (use the Alt key to activate the menu).

At the C:\ prompt type EDIT CONFIG.SYS. Place the line device=c:\aoatapi.sys /d:idecd000 in the config.sys and then save, then exit.

Restart the virtual machine and go into windows. Open the File Manager and now you will see Drive D for the CD ROM.I loaded the VirtualBox Guest additions for testing.

Sound Card Installation:Search the web for the Sound Blaster 16/AWE for DOS/Windows 3.1 drivers and Copy them to a CD-ROM disk image or floppy disk image, or use the CD-ROM disk image that I already made for you.Start-up MS-DOS to a C:\ prompt. Load the floppy or CD image, access the SoundBlaster 16 drivers on the A: or D: drive, then type install. Note: On my driver CDROM type CD sb16 at the command prompt and then install.

Accept all of the defaults in the installation.

When the installation is complete you can run windows with sound.When you run windows it will create a Audio Program Group automatically.

Network Installation:Search the web for the "AMD PCNET Family (NDIS2/NDIS3)" driver and the " Microsoft TCP-IP-32 3.11b"drivers for Windows 3.11. Copy them to a CD-ROM disk Image or floppy disk Image, or use the CD-ROM disk Image that I already made for you.Boot into windows 3.11 and open the program group "Main". In "Main" open the program "Windows Setup", click "options" and then "Change Network Settings".

On the "Network Setup" screen click on networks. On the next screen select "Install Microsoft Windows Network" and hit "OK".

When the reboot is complete start Windows Again. You get the messenger: welcome to Windows for Workgroups. Click "OK" to make a new password or "Cancel" the start the Program Manager.

Go to the program group "Network" and click "Network Setup". On the Network setup click on "Drivers", then "Add protocol" and select "Unlisted or Updated Protocol", then hit "ÖK".

On the CDROM drive or Floppy disk Image select the directory where you stored the "Microsoft tcpip311b" drivers and click "OK".Select the Microsoft TCP/IP32 3.11b protocol and click "OK" again.

When the installation is complete click "Close", after that click "OK".When the "Microsoft TCP/IP configuration" window pops up select "Enable Automatic DHCP configuration" or use your own configuration and hit "OK".

Click on "Restart Computer" to finish the installation.To confirm that networking is working at this stage, try opening a MS-DOS Prompt from the "Main" group and type "ping http://www.google.nl"

If you get a reply, then your network installation is working correctly. Type exit to return to windows.

Installing internet explorer 5.01(windows 3.11)To browse the internet you need to install a browser.Search the web for the "Internet Explorer 5 (windows 3.11)" and copy the installer to a CD-ROM disk Image. You can also use the CD-ROM disk image that I made for you.In windows open the File Manager, open your D:\ drive and run the msie501w311 installer.

Hit "Cancel" when it asks to setup a modem. When the installation is complete Click "Reboot Now".

After the Reboot windows will ask to confirm your time zone settings.You can now start internet explorer. When the internet connection wizard starts to configure a modem you have to click cancel.If you are lucky Internet Explorer may run now, but it probably doesn't.

To fix this problem go to the Program Manager, then Main --> Control Panel --> Internet --> tab: Connections.Under Connection select "Your local area or another dialer" and Click "Apply"

This will fix the "hanging" problem!If you like you can change your Home page to "www.google.nl" or anything you like, by clicking on the "General" Tab.

Click "Apply", then "OK" and run internet explorer again.If all goes well then Internet Explorer will load your home page!

Installing display driversUsing Internet Explorer the standard VGA display driver with a resolution of 640×480 is too small for browsing. Windows 3.11 comes with standard super VGA drivers up to a resolution of 1024x768, but it does not work on VirualBox. It will result in the "Blue Screen of Death" and Windows 3.11 has to be reinstalled again (Windows 3.11 doesn't have safe mode to recover it). Because VirtualBox uses a VESA virtual graphic card which is not compatible with Windows 3.11 SVGA-drivers we need to patch them first.Hint: An already patched SVGA-driver is also stored on the CD-ROM disk Image that I already made for you.First Step: You need to search and download the Super VGA (svga.exe) driver for Windows 3.11 on the web or follow this link to download it directly: http://www.resourcemate.com/other/svga.exeSecond Step: Search and download the vgapatch tool or follow this link to download it directly: http://sites.google.com/site/chitchatvm ... 060411.zipNow we need to make a floppy disk image again. Extract the win31svga-060411.zip to the root of the image and copy the svga.exe there also.Your floppy Image need to look like this:

After that we need to patch the svga256.drv that was extracted.To patch: insert after the A:\ prompt "vgapatch p" and hit Enter.

Now boot into Windows 3.11 and open the program group "Main". In "Main" open the program "Windows Setup", click "options" and then "Change System Settings". In the display dropdownbox scroll down and select "Other display (Requires disk from OEM)". Browse to the location where you stored the patched display drivers (A:\ properly) and click "OK". Now select the "Super VGA 1024x768 256 small" driver and click "OK" and "OK" again, then Restart windows.

Windows 3.11 on 1024x768 with a nice background from windows 7

This is the end of my tutorial Enjoy!

Made By: Glijnos

Last edited by Glijnos on 30. Aug 2012, 11:44, edited 1 time in total.

I think your tutorial has merit (very clear) and should be moved to the tutorials section, though I do have a couple of concerns.

1. I don't recognize your problem with the display driver. My own Win 3.1 VM is running using the same "Super VGA 1024x768 256 Small" driver, and I didn't need to patch it to get it to work with VirtualBox's VESA interface. Can you provide a link to any discussion on these forums of that problem?

2. Do you know the copyright status of the drivers and patch tools that you provide download links for?

It was initially intended to post it on the tutorial selection but i had no rights to post there.I would appreciate it if you moved this post to the tutorial selection

1. I reinstalled windows 3.11 on a new VM to test if the standard svga that come with windows 3.11 work and i tested the unpatched svga.exe drivers which ara basicly the same drivers.But it simply doesn't work for me.I get the following error after loading:

If you got them working without patching then i really like to know how and why it's working. I used the latest VirtualBox on a windows 7 host.

Glijnos wrote:1. I reinstalled windows 3.11 on a new VM to test if the standard svga that come with windows 3.11 work and i tested the unpatched svga.exe drivers which ara basicly the same drivers.But it simply doesn't work for me.

It's not expected to. The driver from Microsoft only works with specific SVGA chips, none of which VirtualBox emulates.

The only generic option is the 800x600 resolution available in Windows NT and at least some Windows 3.x versions; however, that is 16-color planar VGA and therefore slow.

My install does not handle the exit from command windows well. The normal setting is full screen. On exit, everything goes black and I have to reset/reboot the guest. I changed the pif to open in a window, but that messed up the font size in all the windows, and other pathologies.

First of all, this is a great tutorial. Second, I've had 3.11 running for over a year and I just noticed that when MSIE is running the CPU usage jumps up to over 100%. I have DOSIDLE and WQGHLT and they work great with the exception of MSIE 5 (at least that's all I've noticed so far). Does anyone know of a fix for this? Thanks!

Kuato wrote:they work great with the exception of MSIE 5 (at least that's all I've noticed so far). Does anyone know of a fix for this? Thanks!

The fix would have to come from Microsoft - only they can write their code to give up more idle time.

A possible workaround would be to set a cap on CPU for that VM (see VM settings | System|Processor) - though a caveat is that while I know the feature exists, I've never needed to use it so can't say much about it, even whether it works.

I think the over 100% is because the CPU has 2 cores, so the total is 200%. Anyway, thanks for the information. Not really a big deal since I don't use IE much on the 3.11 virtual machine. I was just curious on the off chance that someone had a fix or workaround.

edit: by the way, i've downloaded the sb16 driver in another site, and when i want it to install, the installation program says to me: "Not enough conventional memory is available, Remove some or all resident programs before running INSTALL"... I appreciated if someone help me with this...

For the 256 color modes, the left half of the Windows image is stretched to cover the screen completely. When I change to any 256 color mode and Windows restarts, there's a brief time at startup when the wallpaper is displayed correctly (non-stretched).

I've followed the directions given earlier in this post regarding the SVGA driver, and still no joy.

Anyone have any ideas? I'd really like to get the 1024x768 resolution working.

Just playing with that theses days. By chance I had a ms win3.1 virtual machine I created long time ago with a «nice» screen.When I tried again, I got the same screen as yours (almost twice as lage as expected).I noticed (almost by accident that if, from windows you go to MS-DOS mode (the MS-DOS icon on the main group) and then type exit the windows screen is from now correctly displayed ...(MS Magic probably)I compared the system.ini of the two machines and after two hours of trials and errors discovered that changing (manualy by editing the file) the EnableSharing=Yes in the [network] section into EnableSharing=No solved the problem.